Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/75

ants, except their consisting, in each species and family, of several distinct orders of individuals or castes which live together in populous, organized communities. In both there are, besides the males and females, a set of individuals of no fully-developed sex, immensely more numerous than their brothers and sisters, whose task is to work and care for the young brood. In true ants this class of the community consists of undeveloped females, and when it comprises, as is the case in many species, individuals of different structure, the functions of these do not seem to be rigidly defined. The contrary happens in the Termites, and this perhaps shows that the organization of their communities has reached a higher stage, the division of labour being more complete. The neuters in these wonderful insects are always divided into two classes—fighters and workers; both are blind, and each keeps to its own task; the one to build, make covered roads, nurse the young brood from the egg upwards, take care of the king and queen, who are the progenitors of the whole colony, and secure the exit of the males and females, when they acquire wings and fly out to pair and disseminate the race: the other to defend the community against all comers. Ants and termites are also widely different in their mode of growth, or, as it is called, metamorphosis. Ants in their early stage are footless grubs, which, before they reach the adult state, pass through an intermediate quiescent stage (pupa) inclosed in a membrane. Termites, on the contrary, have a similar form when they emerge from the egg to that which they retain throughout life; the chief dif-